Kaizen Exam Questions with 100% Correct Answers

What is kaizen Correct Answer It is the idea of continuous improvement, and it another important aspect of lean production. The main objectives of big businesses is to be continually making small incremental steps in quality of output, improvements in design, and in reduction of waste It is also about involving everyone in the decision making process Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning " Continuous Improvement" and manages often refer to the need of Correct Answer " kaizen oriented work force" or managers who " live and breathe kaizen " What happened before kazien Correct Answer Before it became widespread, leading British businesses improvements in quality of output are made in large one off steps, these steps are often forced upon businesses by competitors. Businesses would be put under competitive pressure to invest in retooling the workplace or purchasing new machinery / technology. By creating a one off improvement in productivity, things would then remain the same until another external pressure What is the problem in large one off improvements Correct Answer - It decreases productivity as it takes a while for people to adopt - additionally businesses were often playing catch up as by the time they had caught up to the competition they had already moved onto the next thing as they had adopted continuous improvement - large scale changes also meant lower demand for workers ( redundancy's ) this led to breakdown in relationships with trade unions and large scale disruptions in the workplace - it was costly to make large scale changes so it can be difficult to raise the finance Why is there job losses with one off large scale changes Correct Answer It's aim is to reduce waste so that means a loss of jobs but also the sudden change meant many people weren't happy